My fiancé’s childhood best friend, Hailey, always claimed to be a psychic and a spiritual healer. On the day of my wedding, the moment I stepped out of the bridal limo, she suddenly lunged out of the crowd and threw a bucket of stinking, black animal blood all over my pristine white gown. "I told you all!" she shrieked. "Chloe is cursed with dark energy! It’s bad luck for her to marry today, but you refused to listen to me!" "Look at her! The dark energy is literally oozing out of her now!" The crowd of wedding guests gasped in horror and instinctively took several steps back. Even my fiancé, Liam, backed away a good ten feet. Before I could even wipe my eyes, Liam’s mother shrieked in realization. "I always wondered why a girl would still be unmarried at 28! Turns out she’s just damaged goods waiting for my son to bail her out!" My fingernails dug violently into my palms. Liam's family knew exactly why I was still unmarried at 28. The first year we got engaged, Hailey had kicked the banquet hall doors open right in the middle of our engagement party. "I read his astrological chart!" she screamed. "Liam is destined for a late marriage! If he gets married now, they’ll just divorce anyway. You can’t go through with this!" Without a second thought, Liam canceled the engagement party. I waited three years. We planned another wedding, but Hailey claimed it was a "widow’s year" in the zodiac and absolutely terrible for tying the knot. Liam obeyed her again. And now, this year, with the entire wedding already paid for and the guests waiting, she suddenly claimed I was cursed with "dark energy." I wiped the foul-smelling black blood off my face, my eyes burning red with fury. "Are you seriously just going to stand there and let her do this?" I demanded, glaring at Liam. Liam was busy wiping a stray drop of blood off Hailey’s finger with a silk handkerchief. He didn't even look up. "Hailey is a professional. She's just looking out for us, Chloe. Stop causing a scene." I ripped off my blood-stained veil and turned back toward the limo. "If we've been dating for seven years and our 'energies' still don't match, then there's absolutely no point in getting married." ...... I reached out to pull the limo door shut. But Hailey immediately barked an order like a commander on a battlefield. "Grab her! Don't let her get away!" "The dark energy on her is contagious! Anyone who looks at her will be infected! Tie her up immediately!" "We have to throw her in the river to cleanse the evil spirits!" Hearing her unhinged commands, Liam was actually the first person to step toward me. The rest of his family quickly followed. I slammed the car door shut, and my driver, Mr. Lee, instantly locked all the doors. Outside, Liam's relatives had already grabbed shovels and garden hoes from the landscaping crew and started smashing the car windows. My maid of honor, Mia, was sitting next to me. She threw her arms around me, trembling in terror. I shielded her with my body, my heart hammering in my chest. Liam pushed his way to the front of the mob and stood outside my window. "Chloe, be a good girl and open the door, okay?" "You'll be fine. We just have to dunk you in the river for a bit to cleanse you." "Don't be scared. I'll be standing right there supervising. Nothing bad will happen." I didn't answer him. I just desperately yelled at Mr. Lee to step on the gas and get us out of there. But right at that moment, Mia suddenly spoke up. "Chloe... just stop fighting." "Just do what Hailey says. She spent a whole month preparing the spiritual rituals for your wedding. She's exhausted." "It's just getting dunked in the river. It's not going to kill you." I froze, staring at my best friend in absolute disbelief. Before I could process her betrayal, Mia reached over and hit the master unlock button on my door panel. All four doors unlocked simultaneously. Liam's father lunged forward, dragged Mr. Lee out of the driver's seat by his collar, and threw him onto the pavement. Mia's terrified expression vanished instantly. She shoved me hard, right out the open door. I stumbled and fell hard onto the concrete. Looking up, I saw Mia and Hailey standing side-by-side, holding hands. I opened my mouth to scream, but someone immediately shoved a filthy rag into it. A dozen pairs of hands pinned me to the ground. They tied me up with thick, rough rope like a farm animal and began dragging me toward a rusted iron cage they used for trapping wild hogs. The cage was caked with dried blood and rust, and a heavy iron anvil was tied to the bottom to act as a sinker weight. I fought with everything I had, gripping the metal bars so tightly my knuckles turned white, refusing to be shoved inside. Mr. Lee scrambled up from the pavement and threw himself over me to protect me. "Liam, are you crazy?! Chloe almost drowned when she was a little kid! She’s terrified of water! If you throw her in the river, she’ll have a panic attack and die!" Liam stared at my bloodshot, terrified eyes. His tone remained perfectly flat. "Chloe, I checked the ropes. They're very secure." "I will protect you. Just close your eyes, and it will be over soon." His relatives violently dragged Mr. Lee away. I was brutally shoved into the rusty cage. The sharp iron edges sliced open my forehead, blood pouring down my face. I bit down on the rag, curling into a tight ball as the cage was hoisted up and thrown into the deep, murky estate pond. As I thrashed in the freezing water, Hailey spoke up from the shoreline. "Leave the cage submerged at the bottom of the pond for three minutes. Then pull her up." Someone in the crowd gasped. "Three minutes? Isn't that way too long? A normal person drowning only has about two minutes before they pass out. Anything over three minutes causes irreversible brain damage... even if we revive her, she'll probably be a vegetable..." Liam’s gaze lingered on the blood seeping from my forehead for exactly two seconds. His voice brokered no argument. "Do exactly as Hailey says." "When the time is up, pull the rope up quickly. Chloe hates being cold, I don't want her freezing." I squeezed my eyes shut under the murky water, refusing to look at his hypocritical face for one more second. The water swallowed me whole. The oxygen in my lungs began to compress painfully. The blood from my forehead blurred my vision. As the darkness closed in, a memory from a few weeks ago flashed through my mind. My grandfather had suffered a sudden heart attack. In a sheer panic, I called Liam for help. I called him dozens of times. He never picked up. In the end, it was Mr. Lee who helped me get my grandfather to the emergency room. After getting my grandfather settled in the ICU, I spotted someone who looked exactly like Liam walking down the hallway. I followed him. He walked straight into the Obstetrics and Gynecology wing. Through the half-open door of a private room, I heard a very familiar male voice. "Hailey, can you please not torture Chloe for the next wedding? I'm genuinely worried she might actually refuse to marry me this time." Hailey was snuggled tightly into Liam’s chest, her tone spoiled and arrogant. "Your astrological charts clash violently! I'm just trying to help you both. Why don't you just find a different bride?" Liam chuckled. "And who would I replace her with? You?" Hailey giggled coquettishly. "We've rolled around in the sheets so many times I've lost count. You were so aggressive this last time you actually made me miscarry." "I would never marry a brute like you!" The sound of wet kissing echoed from the room. My mind had gone entirely blank. Chapter 2 That time, Liam had completely disappeared for three whole days. It wasn't until the day after I brought my grandfather home from the hospital that he finally showed up at my house. I asked him where he had been. He looked perfectly calm. "The company sent me out of state on a sudden business trip. I didn't even realize my phone was dead." Watching him expertly massage my grandfather's legs to help his circulation, the angry accusations died in my throat. I kept trying to convince myself. What if I just saw someone who looked like him? What if he’s telling the truth? Liam didn't stay long before a phone call summoned him away. After he hung up, his eyes were incredibly soft. "Hailey says that for a month before the wedding, the bride and groom aren't allowed to see each other. It disturbs the marital energy fields and brings bad luck to the marriage." "I'll see you at the altar, Chloe." Before I could even reach out to stop him, he was already out the door. Everyone always said that Hailey had been madly in love with Liam since they were eight years old. Growing up, she had written him over a hundred love letters. But he had ruthlessly rejected every single one. It turns out, in this endless game of cat-and-mouse, Liam had fallen for her a long time ago. I closed my eyes. The freezing pond water engulfed me, and my consciousness was finally swallowed entirely by the dark abyss. When I woke up again, half an hour had passed. I had been dragged onto the grassy bank. Liam’s suit jacket was draped over my shivering body. Mr. Lee was sitting next to me, weeping. When he saw me open my eyes, he furiously wiped his tears. "Miss Chloe! If something happened to you, how could I ever face your father?!" "It was supposed to be a beautiful wedding, and these animals ruined it!" "That psychopath Hailey said that since you just got pulled out of the river, you're covered in 'dark energy,' and she won't even let you step foot inside the bridal suite!" It was only then that I realized I was lying under a large oak tree, far away from the main entrance of Liam's estate. The bridal suite was less than thirty feet away, but I wasn't even allowed to go inside to get warm. Someone must have told him I was awake, because Liam quickly hurried over. He looked me up and down. "Are you feeling sick anywhere?" I threw his jacket off my body with a look of pure ice. "I want to go home." His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he ultimately swallowed whatever words of comfort he had prepared. "Hailey says the dark energy hasn't been fully cleansed from your aura yet. We can't go through with the wedding today." Seeing the mocking sneer form on my lips, he quickly promised: "Chloe, I swear, next time... the wedding will definitely happen next time." I was so sick of hearing that sentence. As for the wedding, I hadn't wanted it for a long time anyway. I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm. "Chloe, before you leave, you need to swap this out." "What?" I stared at the necklace he was holding out to me. It smelled like rotting meat and dried blood. The thought of the cage in the river made my stomach heave violently. "It's a necklace made of wild boar teeth." "Hailey blessed it." "She said if you wear this, your dark energy won't infect anyone else. It wards off evil." My hands shook. A freezing chill spread through my veins. "Liam. Are you intentionally trying to humiliate me?" "First you let her throw dog blood on me, then you let them drown me in a cage, and now you want me to wear this disgusting garbage?" His tone remained eerily calm. "It's not a gift. It's a trade." "Hailey said it's an equivalent exchange. You have to trade that wooden serenity bracelet on your wrist for the boar teeth. That's the only way the magic works." I almost laughed out of sheer fury. My entire body began to shake uncontrollably. I was born sickly and frail. My parents had flown across the world and practically begged a renowned spiritual master for that serenity bracelet to protect my health. When my grandfather entrusted me to Liam, he explicitly warned him: "My granddaughter has a weak constitution. This bracelet keeps her safe. She must never take it off." Just yesterday, Liam had sworn to my grandfather that he would protect me with his life, and that the bracelet would never leave my wrist. But today, he was breaking that vow just to steal it from me. "This is my property! On what grounds does she get to take it?!" "If Hailey wants a trade, she can go to hell!" I suppressed the blazing fury in my chest and turned to walk away. But Liam grabbed my wrist and forcefully yanked me back. "Chloe, how much longer are you going to throw this tantrum?!" "Divining energy drains Hailey’s life force! If it gets serious, it literally shortens her lifespan. How can you be so selfish and cold-blooded?" "The boar tooth necklace is a sacred relic that will suppress the evil inside you! That cheap wooden bracelet isn't worth anything! You're getting the better end of the deal!" As he spoke, his fingers dug into the wooden bracelet, trying to forcibly rip it off my wrist. I stared at him, letting out a dark, mocking laugh. So in Liam’s mind, anything belonging to Hailey was a priceless, sacred treasure. It wasn't the wooden bracelet that was worthless. It was me. Seeing that I wouldn't yield, he yanked on it violently. The forceful shove sent me stumbling backward. I clutched my chest, gasping for air. The aftereffects of nearly drowning hadn't faded. Every breath I took felt like broken glass in my lungs. The wound on my forehead, aggravated by my spiked heart rate, began bleeding profusely again. Liam’s movements froze. He furrowed his brow tightly. "Chloe, don't try to scare me." He reached out to catch my collapsing body. Right at that moment, Mia came sprinting out of the bridal suite. "Liam, did you get the bracelet?! Hailey started coughing up blood again!" In a fraction of a second, the pity in Liam’s eyes vanished entirely. His grip on my wrist tightened like a vice. This time, there was absolutely no hesitation. He brutally ripped the wooden bracelet off my wrist, scraping my skin raw, and callously threw the rotting boar tooth necklace onto my chest. The overpowering stench of blood and rot made me gag violently. I reached out to snatch my bracelet back, but he shoved me away so hard I hit the pavement. My already scraped knees burst open, fresh blood pooling on the asphalt. Before I could even reach down to wipe it away, my phone rang in my purse. "Miss Chloe, come quick! Your grandfather just collapsed!" Chapter 3 When I rushed back to my grandfather's house, he was lying in bed, his face as white as a sheet. Seeing my wedding dress covered in mud, blood, and filth, he broke down into loud, heartbroken sobs. He slapped himself hard across the face. "Chloe, I am so sorry! It's all my fault you suffered like this!" "If I hadn't pushed you two together, you never would have met a monster like Liam!" "It's all my fault! It's all my fault!" Through his tears, my grandfather slapped his own cheeks until they were bright red. Panicking, I grabbed his hands to stop him. "Grandpa, it's not your fault! He's just an incredible actor." "Don't worry, the wedding is permanently off." "We're packing up and leaving this house. We're going back to the city!" My grandfather wiped his tears. "Whatever my little girl wants."
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